Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

Four centuries of soil carbon and nitrogen change after severe fire in a Western Cascades forest landscape

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  • Fire is a major disturbance process in many forests. Long-term studies of the biogeochemical effects of fires, especially on soils, are very rare. Consequently, long-term effects of fire on soils are often hypothesized from short-term effects. In a chronosequence study, I studied 24 western Cascades (Oregon) forest stands thought to have been initiated in fire. Twelve of those burned about 150 years ago (“young” sites), and the other 12 burned an average of 550 years ago (“old” sites). I hypothesized that young stands would have less carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) in forest floor and in 0 -10 cm mineral soil than old stands. I found that forest floor N pools of old sites (average = 1,823 kg/ha ± s.e. = 132 kg/ha) were significantly greater than young sites (1,450 ± 98 kg/ha). Similarly, forest floor C pools of old sites (62,980 ± 5,403 kg/ha) were significantly greater than young sites (49,032 ± 2,965 kg/ha). Greater N and C pools in forest floor of old sites resulted from greater forest floor mass in old sites; concentrations of both N and C, and C:N ratios, did not differ significantly by forest age class. In mineral soil, neither concentrations nor pools of N and C differed between young and old sites. Despite overall similarity of C:N ratios in young versus old sites, potential N mineralization rates were twice as high in forest floor of old sites (average = 60 ± 7.3 mg N / g soil) than young sites (26 ± 3.5 mg N / g soil), . Nitrate accounted for only 2% or less of total N mineralized in forest floor samples. In mineral soil, potential net N mineralization did not differ by forest age class. The pattern of high net N mineralization and low nitrification in old forests is consistent with other studies of fire-prone forests, yet contrasts with many studies of forests that lack fire, and suggests that ammonium is not the sole control over nitrification in fire-prone ecosystems. Overall, fire appears to impart a longterm legacy of reduced forest floor N and C pools in this western Oregon Cascades landscape, which suggests that current fire-suppression activities in the region may increase forest floor N and C storage over historical conditions within several centuries. The differences in forest floor and soil N cycling processes that I observed by forest age class raise the further possibility that fire exclusion in these forests may change the relative abundance of soil inorganic N forms to favor ammonium over nitrate. Such changes may have unknown consequences for relative competitive abilities of plant and microbial species that rely preferentially on different N-forms to meet N nutrition requirements. While forest floor N and C pools increase from young to old stands, forest floor and soil N and C pools are not different, or decline, between 450 year old stands and the oldest stands at 800+ years, That, and other, anomalous changes in values from ~450 to 800+ years, suggest possible changes in ecosystem functions, and may indicate that this landscape could be a fruitful study area for examinations of a mature, steady-state ecosystem
  • Keywords: succession, nitrification, biogeochemistry, soils, nitrogen, N mineralization, carbon, forest fire, old-growth
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file details Final_Thesis_12.28.pdf 2017-08-07 Pubblico Scaricare